Weight Loss Surgeries Cut Down Asthma Episodes in Obese People

Weight loss surgery for obese people with asthma can help lower incidence of flare-ups.

According to US News and World Report, the study used data from 2,300 obese patients with asthma from California, Florida and Nebraska who had undergone weight loss surgery between 2007 and 2009. The study noted that incidence of emergency visit for asthma reduced to 11 percent after surgery from nearly double that rate before surgery.

"We found that risk of an emergency department visit or hospitalization for asthma exacerbation decreased by half after bariatric [weight-loss] surgery and remained significantly lower for at least 2 years," the study's authors reportedly wrote.

The study's authors however did not measure actual weights of the participants and hence it was not possible to point out how much weight loss was beneficial.

Though the study did not explain the link between weight loss and asthma, researchers believe that inflammation causing interleukins, chemicals released from fat cells, can cause flare up of asthma, which essentially is sudden inflammatory reaction of air pathways.